Tobacco drying rack



May 24, 1955 B. TILLMAN 2,709 103 TOBACCO DRYING RACK Filed Sept. 9, 1954 ENTOR WALMAN United States Patent TOBACCO DRYING RACK Bevelyn Tillman, Farmingdale, N. Y.

Application September 9, 1954, Serial No. 454,919

3 Claims. (Cl. 2945.5)

This invention relates to a drying rack for drying tobacco leaves.

In the prior practice of drying tobacco leaves a straight stick of wood and a length of string was employed. In this old method the string was tied to one end of the stick and a plurality of tobacco leaf stems were encircled with the string at a suitable distance from the end of the stick. The encircled bunch of leaves was then disposed on one side of the stick.

Next a second plurality of leaves were encircled by the string at a suitable distance away from the first bunch and this second bunch or group of leaves was disposed on the side of the stick opposite that of the location of the first encircled bunch of leaves.

The over-all result was that the bunches of leaves were disposed alternately down the length of the stick whereupon the stick was placed in a drying shed to cure.

The disadvantages of this prior art practice was that the bunches were not uniformly spaced from one another, that a great deal of string was wasted, that considerable labor was involved and that the practice was time consuming to an extreme degree.

It is an object of this invention to provide a tobacco drying rack capable of being operated by one person.

It is another object of this invention to provide a tobacco drying rack adapted to pack the drying leaves in a minimum of space.

It is a further object or purpose of this invention to provide a tobacco drying rack which can be easily loaded and unloaded, and which is of simple and inexpensive construction.

These and other objects of this invention will become evident upon reading the following disclosure taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which,

Fig. l is a perspective view of the rack showing in dotted outline the manner of lifting one of the two hinged bars and further showing the manner of locking a plurality of tobacco leaf stems (shown for simplicity as a single leaf) in an aperture formed between a centrally disposed rectangular support and a respective hinged bar,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a loaded tobacco rack placed upon a pair of drying shed poles and in position for being cured, and

Fig. 3 is a transverse view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 and showing the manner of engaging tobacco leaves between the centrally disposed support and the opposed lateral swingable lock bars and further showing in dotted outline the manner of outward movement of said lock bars.

Referring to the drawing, the tobacco rack of this invention comprises a centrally disposed rectangular elongated support preferably of wood though plywood, plastic and metal is operable in lieu of wood. The support 10 is of considerable length and of a thickness adapted to provide a pair of opposed channels in the longitudinal sides or faces of the support 10, which as shown is a rectangular object or a parallelepiped.

A pair of swingable flat lock bars 11 and 12 are hingedly secured at one end of the support 10 by means of rivet pins 13 and 14 respectively.

The lock bars 11 and 12 may be of metal and are ice adapted to fit into the channels provided in the lateral sides of said support it) (Fig. 3).

The lock bar 12; may be provided with a swivel locking pin 15 having a substantially rectangular aperture and adapted to embrace the free end of bar ill in a locked position. A suitable lock cut-out or notch 16 may be provided in bar 11 to prevent slipping of pin 15 on bar 11.

Any conventional method of locking the free ends of a loaded rack may be used in lieu of the swivel pin 15 secured through an aperture of bar 12. Thus a removable slip-011 collar or clip (not shown) could be used, c? elastic bands or springs, etc.

Both of the lateral sides or edges of the support 10 are provided with a plurality of spaced-apart cuts or notches 17 preferably of a hemi-spherical shape or configuration. Similarly, the bars 11 and 12 are provided with a plurality of spaced-apart hemispherical notches 153 on their inner sides and they are adapted to register with the co-acting respective notches 17 disposed in support it) to eiiect circular respective aperture in the closed drying rack.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the notches of one lateral edge of support iii are preferably in staggered relationship to the notches on the other edge or side of support It), thereby preventing undue interference or packing together of opposed bunches of tobacco leaves and also permitting more eflective packing and drying or curing oi": the packed leaves.

In the loading of the tobacco rack of this invention the rack may be placed on a tobacco saw-horse (not shown) or upon a table 19 having a suitable groove 20 adapted to receive a bar 11 or 12 therein with the lowermost swingable bar 12 disposed in the groove 20. The support 10 may then be lifted and the notches of bar 12 are each filled with a plurality of tobacco leaf stems (shown for simplicity in the drawing as a single leaf). After the notches of bar 12 are filled the support 10 is lowered thereby locking the individual bunches of tobacco leaves in place. Next the bar 11 is lifted and the notches of the top edge of the support 10 are loaded (Fig. l) whereupon the bar 11 is lowered and bars 11 and 12 are then clamped together by swivel pin 15.

The loaded tobacco drying rack is then placed upon suitably spaced-apart poles ll. located in a drying shed where the normal curing process is then accomplished and wherein the top of the drying stems curl outwardly preventing the dried leaves in the rack against falling out due to gravity.

This invention is illustrated by means of an embodiment but it is not to be limited to this illustration since it is of a more generic scope.

I claim:

1. A rack for drying tobacco comprising an elongated centrally disposed parallelepiped having channels in each of the opposed longitudinal edges and having a plurality of spaced apart notches in each longitudinal edge, and a pair of flat opposed locking bars individually secured to one end of the parallelepiped, each having a plurality of notches adapted to register with co-acting notches in said parallelepiped and each being further adapted to fit partly in one of said channels, whereby substantially circular apertures are formed between the notches of the parallelepiped and the respective notches of the swingable lock bars.

2. The drying rack of claim 1 wherein. the apertures of one side of a. closed rack are in staggered or oif'set relationship to the apertures of the other side of a closed rack.

3. The rack of claim 2 having locking means for manually locking a drying rack loaded with a plurality of bunches of bunched tobacco leaves.

No references cited. 

